Author
Topic: Book Thread Continued

Right now I'm dividing time between The Magicians series by Lev Grossman and James Dashner's Maze Runner books, since the TV series of the former returns next month and The Death Cure comes out later in January. I've just started The Magicians and as I've felt before it's kind of like an adult Chronicles of Narnia, and I've read both prequels to The Maze Runner, which I enjoyed as well.

I'm more than halfway through The Two Towers, going through the portion of the story focusing on Frodo, Sam, and Gollum. I'm at the part where they encounter Faramir.

This part of the book is hit or miss. When it's good, it's engaging. But when it's off, it's incredibly tedious. Some chapters were nothing more than characters just sitting around engaging in stream-of-consciousness pondering that really goes nowhere, fails to flesh out/develop them meaningfully, and does little to nothing to progress the story. But then again, this isn't the first time Lord of the Rings has gone off the rails into what feels like lengthy drug-fueled tangents where I'm left scratching my head and wondering, "Where in blue blazes is this even going?" (Council of Elrond chapter comes to mind.)

EDIT: Further into the book. I just finished the chapter about the forbidden pool.

I've had people tell me how awesome Faramir is in the book, but I'm not seeing it. He really could have been a dynamic and interesting character, but so far he has been nothing more than another ho-hum flat character who serves merely as a mouthpiece to dump exposition. So far, the only characters who really have personalities in the book are Pippin, Gollum, and to a lesser extent Merry and Sam (who's starting to come into his own.)

I blaspheme when I say I vastly preferred the film's version of Faramir, because he was a more believable character than book Faramir so far. It makes sense to me that someone in his predicament would have a more stony disposition, given the boulder sized chip on his shoulder, and would most certainly be at least a little bit tempted by the Ring.

Faramir's dad, Denethor, either hates him or doesn't think much of him, strongly (perhaps obsessively) favoring the elder son Boromir- who is now dead. Faramir's homeland, Gondor, is doomed. Faramir is determinedly fighting the good fight, but is still pretty much damned if he lives, damned if he dies. So in all that turbulence, he finds two suspicious hobbits (Frodo and Sam) who know something, but are withholding the truth. They particularly withheld a major truth about their third companion, Gollum- who is later caught breaking a sacred rule punishable by death in Faramir's creed but is spared simply because one of the suspicious hobbits requests it.

given all of these circumstances, Faramir would trust and welcome Frodo and Sam so quickly, treat them like honored guests in the secret stronghold, and proffer information to them that could prove deadly if it fell into enemy hands... which is where Frodo's errand is pretty much taking him. Plus, Faramir just lets them go with no big reservations.

All this makes book Faramir seem like a total Mary Sue. Nobody in his shoes would be that gregarious and incorruptible, even in the realm of fantasy and especially when it comes to the Ring.

I think once I finish Lord of the Rings, I'm done with Tolkien. I will finish LOTR, though, because having come this far I'm too invested not to see it through.

EDIT 2: To break things up a little, I read a sample from the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit by Gary Wolf. Roger Rabbit is my all time favorite movie, so finding out that it was loosely based on a book was eye-opening. I liked the sample. It is very different from the movie, but that's what makes it intriguing. One thing that's interesting is not only the tension between humans and toons, but also tension among toons between "humanoids" (cartoon people) and "barnyards" (cartoon animals.)

« Last Edit: January 07, 2018, 02:24:24 PM by Dincrest »

Logged

You can brag about your 5000+ friends on social media all you want, but riddle me this: how many of them would help you move?

is trying to define himself without Frodo or anything familiar about him and steeling his resolve to do what's good and right

was terrific and it ended at a really tense cliffhanger. That Sam chapter was the most un-put-down-able chapter in the book. WOW! This cements why he's awesome. What is up with Sams having such amazing integrity? That's why I love Samwise Gamgee in LOTR and Samwell Tarly in ASOIAF/GoT.

For all the griping I do about Lord of the Rings, I cannot deny that it is a really damn good book. I can totally see why it's such an enduring cultural phenomenon. It's like The Beatles. I don't like all their music, but I see why they are an enduring cultural phenomenon to this day, and the Beatles songs I do like never fail to make me stand up and shout. (My favorite Beatles song is Helter Skelter.)

« Last Edit: January 17, 2018, 08:46:53 AM by Dincrest »

Logged

You can brag about your 5000+ friends on social media all you want, but riddle me this: how many of them would help you move?

Reading a pretty decent biography on Trotsky. I need to check out some primary sources to be sure (I'm terrible at reading primary sources), but he seems a lot more reprehensible than I had originally believed.

Leviathan Wakes: This was entertaining, and a quick read, but I couldn't help but be somewhat disappointed. Although this is in the science-fiction / space opera genre, there wasn't anything original happening here; although well-executed, it was largely a rehash of old ideas.

The characters were well written...but I didn't like any of them very much. One of the characters was a police detective, which you would think would imply a twisty story, but none of the plot twists surprised me, and frankly, for anyone who has seen Farscape, the title alone makes the ending pretty obvious.

The style of the book is very visual and dialog driven, making it suitable for adaptation to TV (which has apparently already happened: The Expanse). I think I might enjoy that series more than this book, but I haven't subscribed to the Space channel in years.

But beyond all that, Leviathan commits a cardinal sin. There's a scene where a major space battle occurs, and the main characters are stuck in a room in a battleship. We don't get to see what happens outside. I get what the author was trying to do here: being stuck in a room with Big Things happening outside that you have no direct knowledge about, no control over, and could kill you in a blink would be an incredibly dramatic experience. But you know what would be even more dramatic? GETTING TO WATCH THE DAMN SPACE BATTLE.

pledges himself into the service of Denethor- the steward of Minas Tirith. This is a good Pippin chapter as it shows that he's far more clever than we initially thought. At first he seemed like a dunce or nuisance class clown, but he's proving to be rather resourceful. Like Gandalf says, hobbits never fail to surprise.

This chapter is really long, but I'm digging it.

Logged

You can brag about your 5000+ friends on social media all you want, but riddle me this: how many of them would help you move?

Aragorn and Eowyn verbally spar about how she wants to ride with him, he says no she has to stay and rule, and she objects to being told, "Woman, stay in the kitchen and make me a sammich!" This felt the most like real actual dialogue I've seen in the book. And how great it was to see some stronger and more fiery character personalities.

Return of the King, so far, is the best book in the trilogy. It feels like Tolkien started really getting a better bead on creating character personalities through dialogue that feels like dialogue and not just characters being mouthpieces for exposition dumps.

UPDATE: "The Pyre of Denethor" was another amazing chapter in a book filled with amazing chapters. The immediacy and intensity of it, and the book as a whole, is blowing the doors off the place. This is SO worth the occasional slogs in the first two books.

« Last Edit: February 11, 2018, 04:44:53 PM by Dincrest »

Logged

You can brag about your 5000+ friends on social media all you want, but riddle me this: how many of them would help you move?

And I'm reading the National Geographic Magazine. In general, I really like such articles in a field of nature, as well as travels. A huge plus of this magazine in its magnificent photos.It inspires me and now I keep in mind some exotic places that I’d like to visit

Logged

“There are no accidents; there is only some purpose that we haven’t yet understood”

I finished the first half of Return of the King, which was all about The Fellowship gearing up for their last stand. I also just started the second half of it (which focuses on Frodo's errand) and hopefully finish Lord of the Rings before spring.

Logged

You can brag about your 5000+ friends on social media all you want, but riddle me this: how many of them would help you move?